BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Lawmakers are considering expanding Alabama’s sick leave donation law, to let K-12 employees donate sick leave directly to other K-12 employees across district lines and for reasons beyond catastrophic illness.
Under current law, sick leave donations must go through a sick leave bank and can only be used by an employee with a catastrophic illness.
Senate Bill 211, sponsored by Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, was inspired by his family’s experience, he said. One of his daughters wanted to donate sick leave to her sister, but because they worked in different school systems, the process was difficult.
“Through the red tape and all, it was just almost impossible to transfer sick leave days to her younger sister,” Allen recently told members of the House Education Policy Committee.
Under SB211, beginning with the 2027-28 school year, direct donation of sick leave would not be limited to catastrophic illness cases, instead allowing employees to donate sick leave directly to another employee “for any reason.”
The bill would also explicitly allow employees to donate sick leave directly to employees in other school systems.
The current law governing sick leave for education employees includes K-12 schools and two-year colleges. But two-year colleges were excluded when the Senate Education Policy Committee approved a substitute bill.
Allen said on the Senate floor that changes for postsecondary institutions could be addressed in a future legislative session.
“There’s one or two other senators as well looking at doing another piece of legislation next session and we’re going to drill a little bit deeper on that piece as well,” Allen said.
But when the House Education Policy committee approved an amendment to the Senate-passed version of SB211, members asked whether two-year colleges were part of the bill’s sick leave changes or not.
Community college officials attending the meeting told committee members they needed to be left out of the changes because of “complexities” in transferring days between K-12 and community colleges.
They emphasized that community colleges will operate the sick leave bank with no changes.
“We’re going to maintain a sick leave bank. That is the intent,” Alan Bates, Executive Director of External Affairs for the Alabama Community College System, told members. “That’s not going away for our employees.”
The bill could see additional changes on the House floor, where it will be considered after lawmakers return from spring break. It would then have to return to the Senate for concurrence.
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